Discussion with Gareth Long
Conference by the artist followed by a discussion with Martha Kirszenbaum and Charlotte Cosson
Gareth Long, Canadian artist born in 1979, is interested in the notion of copying, translating and imitating: moments of error that can provoke creation. For Gareth Long, the potential of a story or work of art is located in the gap between the original and the failed replica. But how can you make sense of that gap if you don’t even know the copy’s source ? Such is the case with the Golden Ass: the first version being lost, we are left only with later versions by Apuleius and Lucian, unsure which of the two came first – understandable that this confusion would interest the artist.
Gareth Long is currently writing a play in the style of ancient Greek comedy. His new solo show at TORRI is the transposition of that unfinished play. This is thus the materialization of an unfinished text, about prose works inspired by an unlocatable original: the mise en abyme of a yet meaningful void.
